Massingbred made no reply as the other left the room. Once more alone, he began to think gravely over his present situation. Nor could all his habitual levity steel him against the conviction that five minutes of common-sense talk might arrange a dispute which now promised a serious ending. “However,” thought he, “we are not in the land where such differences admit of amicable solution, and there's no help for it.” A sharp tap at the door startled him from these musings, and before he could well reply to it Daniel Nelligan entered the room, and advanced towards him with an air of mingled ease and constraint. “I hope you 'll forgive me, Mr. Massingbred,” he began. “I feel certain that you will at some future day, at least, for what I 'm going to do.” Here he stopped and drew a long breath, as if not knowing in what terms to continue. Massingbred handed him a chair, and took one in front of him without speaking. “I know what brought you here to-day; I am aware of it all.” He paused, and waited for the other to speak; but Massingbred sat without offering a word, and evidently relying on his own social tact to confound and embarrass his visitor. “I know, sir, that you are likely to regard my interference as impertinent,” resumed Nelligan; “but I trust that the friend of my son, Joe--” “I must set you right upon one point, at least, Mr. Nelligan,” said Massingbred, with an easy smile. “If you be only as accurate in your knowledge of my affairs as you are with respect to my private friendships, this visit has certainly proceeded from some misconception. Your son and I were friends once upon a time. We are so no longer!” “I never heard of this. I never knew you had quarrelled!” “We have not, sir. We have not even met. The discourtesy he has shown me since my arrival here--his avoidance of me, too marked to be explained away--is an offence. The only misfortune is that it is one which can be practised with impunity.” “My son asks for none such,” said Dan, fiercely. “And if your observation is meant for an insult--” He stopped suddenly, as if checked by something within, and then said, but in a voice full and measured, “I'm magistrate of this town, sir, and I come here upon information that has reached me of your intentions to commit a breach of the peace.” “My dear Mr. Nelligan,” began Massingbred, in his most seductive of manners,--but the other had already witnessed the rupture of the only tie which bound them, the supposed friendship between Joe and Massingbred, and cared nothing for all the blandishments he could bestow,--“my dear Mr. Nelligan, you cannot, surely, suppose that a mere stranger as I am in your county--scarcely ten days here--should have been unfortunate enough to have incurred the animosity of any one.” “I hold here a statement, sir,” said Nelligan, sternly, “which, if you please to pledge your honor to be incorrect--”